Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,681,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 154,328 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $813,743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $349.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $328.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $323.04.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Wedbush dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.